Contemplating

My anti-bucket list

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The top-3 items in my anti-bucket list are: Drink cognac or tequila I first had cognac in the south of France during a 6-week business trip I was on, and even though I desperately wanted to like it because it sounds so sophisticated to say you drink it, I found it deplorable. And tequila is … Read more

Prompt: Perfectly clear

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Writing prompt: Start with “It’s all perfectly clear now.” It’s all perfectly clear now that I will have a successful career. With a 41-year career behind me, even if things go south in my remaining 8 months of working, that won’t change. It’s all perfectly clear now that I will be “lucky in love.” I’ve … Read more

Why I think Wordle is more luck than skill

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Here are 3 reasons why I think the recently-gone viral game is so popular: It has a broad audience, appealing to both logophiles and logicians alike. It has a super high degree of luck involved. It was designed so that most people get most answers in 6 tries.1 I posit that luck is the biggest … Read more

New dictionary words, because language

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I absolutely love Merriam-Webster’s Word Matters podcast. Its most recent episode is about their addition of 455 new words into the dictionary. Notes about a few of them: fluffernutter Peter Sokolowski: “Well, there’s no question that the favorite, the darling of this batch is the word ‘fluffernutter,’ and everybody loves that word, and I do … Read more

Hopes & dreams

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A colleague asked in a work chat room: “Since I hate setting resolutions, what are everyone’s personal goals or dreams for this year?” My response: Finally take our cruise, which was originally scheduled for April of 2020, then postponed to September of 2021, and is currently still scheduled for April of 2022. Start blogging regularly … Read more

Stock watching

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COVID SALE Toward the beginning of COVID, on March 16, 2020, the stock market plummeted nearly 3,000 points, and I went shopping for some depressed stock. A month earlier, IBM stock was trading at $149.92 per share, so on the day of that crash, I snagged 250 shares at $94.51 per share. How can you … Read more

Contemplating the new year

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It’s the first day of the year in which I’m going to retire. I’m not retiring in the traditional sense of the word; that is, there won’t be a gold watch or a pension involved. Furthermore, it’s not my first time at the retirement rodeo. I like to do big things on my birthdays: On … Read more

My 60th birthday

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~Friday, 10/13/17~ Here are 4 highlights of my life that stand out over these last 10 years. I just couldn’t narrow it down to 3—too much has happened this decade. 50 – 59 years old (2007 – 2016) CELEBRATING TWO MILESTONE BIRTHDAYS. For my 50th birthday, I went to 3 places in Australia that were … Read more